Adventure by Jack london

[MikeTheAdamite]

Set on a south sea Island and telling the story of a plantation owner and the struggles he ecounters with managing the slaves through severe illness on his own.
The book is the clearest example of Londons Racial awareness of all his books I have read.

the first paragraph of the book goes:
'He was a very sick white man.He rode pick-a-back on a woolly headed,black skinned savage,the lobes of whos ears had been pierced and stretched until one had torn out....'
And throughout the book:
'The man horse was greasy and dirty,and naked save for an exceedingly narrow and dirty loin cloth;but the white man clung to him closely and desperately.'
'Stetched on the platform side by side and crowded close lay a score of blacks.That they were low in the order of human life was apparent at a glance.They were man eaters,their faces were asymmetrical,bestial;their bodies were ugly and ape like.'

I could list many more lines but you get the idea!

[wmfinck]

Wow, they didn't give us that one in 9th grade, LOL.

I remember reading Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire, Batard, I enjoyed those stories when I was 13. I don't know if I would enjoy them now. Was London an atheist? It has been forty years, but I don't remember any reliance upon God as his characters faced the hardships of nature.

Was London a socialist? American socialists at that time were all Marxists, so far as I know. I could be wrong. Anyway, I don't remember London's human characters expecting a fair share with the wolves, LOL.

[MikeTheAdamite]

I should have said that yes,London was an athiest,once saying:
'I believe that when I am dead I am dead.I believe that with my death I am just as much obliterated as that mosquito you and I squashed'.But I think he got his athiesm from his Astrolgist father.

And yes,he was also a socialist,even running twice for major as a socialist candidate.But I believe london was without doubt a National Socialist as his racial views attest to.Many of his writings show his admiration for his fellow white man and negative views towards non whites.I cant see how London could be a Marxist.

His books about dogs (the call of the wild,white fang)although excellently written,are not his most interesting reads.If I was to recommend any others,they would probably be:
the mutiny on the Elsinore
and The valley of the moon
both books show Londons Racial awareness throughout.